72.3% of eligible voters voted. 4,249,846 people voted out of 5,881,696 eligible voters.

The final seat distribution is as follows:

Likud (Netanyahu):

30

Labor/Zionist Union (Herzog / Livni):

24

The Joint (Arab) List:

13

Yesh Atid (Lapid):

11

Kulanu (Kachlon):

10

Bayit Yehudi (Bennett):

8

Shas (Deri):

7

UTJ (Gafni / Litzman):

6

Yisrael Beyteynu (Liberman):

6

Meretz (Gal-On):

5

Yachad (Eli Yishai):

0

The Likud was 15,877 seats away from passing the million voter mark.

Yachad was missing 11,932 votes in order to pass the minimum threshold.

43,842 votes in total were disqualified.

Yachad is considering petitioning the court over approximately 15,000 votes that were disqualified due to various problems with the voting slips.

Three people were arrested during the elections for tampering with Yachad voting slips, trying to make it impossible to vote for the Yachad party, and there were more cases where Yachad slips were found tampered with to disqualify them, but no arrests were made.

The Yachad party suspects they may have enough votes to still get in, and are currently examining the issue and will make a decision in the coming days.

Residents of the Bedouin village Arab al Na’im in northern Israel were not surprised Wednesday to discover that more than 76 percent of them had voted for the Likud party. The United Arab List received only about 15 percent of the village’s votes, Ma’ariv reported.

Why did these Bedouin villagers vote en masse for Netanyahu’s party?

Village Clerk Nimer Naim told Ma’riv: “The truth is it’s surprising to us as well, but it turns out each one of us voted their hearts. It was a free election.”

“This settlement was always discriminated against, and no one would recognize us as an official settlement. All the governments discriminated against us, while recognizing smaller communities. Bibi Netanyahu himself and the Likud government finally recognized us,” Naim explained.

“In our heritage, we remember the good things a person did for us, and that explains this unusual vote.”

The Bedouin village of Arab al Naim located near the community of Eshkhar, south of the city of Karmiel. It has approximately 100 families comprising 650 people. The village was recognized as a listed settlement by Netanyahu’s first-term Government in January 1999. Eleven years later, in January 2010, under Netanyahu’s second government, the regional housing planning commission approved the master plan for the settlement.

Arab al Naim is the last of the six Bedouin villages in the area to be recognized by the state.

So far, despite their official upgrade, the village is still not connected to Israel’s road, electricity and sewer systems, and its meager public services—two kindergartens, a youth club, a pediatric clinic and a general medical clinic all operate in mobile structures.

But Naim says that over the last two years there has been a kind of revolution in Arab al Naim: “Today we already have 800 meters of a paved major artery, the streets have been paved, and there’s construction of more than 80 permanent housing units the residents here are building.

“It’s a real revolution,” he adds. “We issued a tender for a sewer system, and this week the contractor is starting to work on laying a sewer line. In a few months we will have a sewer and electricity, and we are satisfied.”

The overall cost of upgrading the village is estimated at $17 million.

מהפך “Mahapach” – translated as upheaval or revolution, was the headline used by the Israeli media immediately following the 1977 elections when the Likud, led by Menachem Begin, won for the first time, changing the face of Israeli politics forever.

The overwhelming electoral victory yesterday by the Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, was nothing less than that, a revolution and upheaval, and most importantly, an absolutely clear mandate from the people to lead the coalition and the State of Israel.

With 99% of the votes counted, we’ll only see 1 seat change here or there as the percentages and deals are calculated.

The Likud is either at 29 or 30 seats, with an absolutely clear lead.

Labor/Zionist Union (Herzog / Livni):

24

Likud (Netanyahu):

29 (or 30)

The Joint (Arab) List:

14

Bayit Yehudi (Bennett):

8

Yesh Atid (Lapid):

11

Kulanu (Kachlon):

10

UTJ (Gafni / Litzman):

7 (or 6)

Shas (Deri):

7

Yisrael Beyteynu (Liberman):

6

Meretz (Gal-On):

4

Yachad (Eli Yishai):

0

Both large parties, Likud and Zionist Union, won their seats by cannibalizing their smaller natural partners.

Bayit Yehudi made the biggest sacrifice for the Likud, with Bayit Yehudi voters heeding Netanyahu’s call to vote for Likud to guarantee Netanyahu a clear mandate..

Eli Yishai’s Yachad party did not make it into the Knesset.

Zahava Galon, the head of the Meretz party quit her party this morning, after winning only 4 seats.

A very happy PM Netanyahu declared victory at the Likud victory party, following the release of the exit poll results from Tuesday’s general elections in Israel.

Netanyahu said that against all the odds, this was a great victory for the Likud, and for the people of Israel.

Netanyahu told his followers that he called all the leaders of the nationalist parties and asked them to join him, and quickly form a government. He declared that he wants to form a strong, stable government.

Netanyahu repeatedly thanked his wife Sara for her support, and for dealing with all the media attacks against her personally.

Yitzchak Herzog (Zionist Union/Labor) said the race is still open.

Still, it appears that the keys to the government lay in the hands of former Likud member Moshe Kachlon and his Kulanu party.